Eddie Murphy Says He's Done With the Paycheck Movies
Eddie Murphy in ‘A Thousand Words’
Aside from an acclaimed dramatic turn in Dreamgirls and scene-stealing voice work in the Shrek movies, Eddie Murphy hasn’t had the best millennium. A string of turkeys piled up and seriously damaged his mojo: films like Pluto Nash (2002), Norbit (2007), Meet Dave (2008), Imagine That (2009), and A Thousand Words (2012), which marked the last time we saw him on the big screen.
But the comedy legend has made a new vow: “The check movies are over for me,” Murphy told The Washington Post in an insightful new profile written in advance of Murphy being bestowed the Mark Twain Award for American Humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday.
In addition to shedding some light on why he didn’t perform at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special (they wanted him to do Bill Cosby, which he felt all sorts of wrong about) or appear on the show’s 25th anniversary program (he was still reeling from a “falling star” crack David Spade made about him), Murphy mentions a few upcoming projects he’s interested in doing ostensibly for the love, not the money.
Related: Eddie Murphy Finally Admits One of His Movies Was Terrible
First there’s the 2016 low-budget drama Henry Joseph Church, directed by Driving Miss Daisy vet Bruce Beresford, starring Murphy as a cook who tends to a young girl (Tomorrowland star Britt Robertson).
Even more intriguing, though, are the three scripts Murphy says he’s written.
One, called Buck Wonder, Super Slave, is described as “a parody of 12 Years a Slave, Roots, and superhero movies.” The others are an R-rated talking-animal movie and a film about two brothers who inherit a black circus. These could indeed mark a new chapter in the Brooklyn native’s career: While Murphy received “story” credit for films like Coming to America, Another 48 Hrs. and Boomerang, he has only one full screenwriting credit to his name, Harlem Nights (which he also directed).
Don’t call it a comeback, though. Not only has Murphy been here for years, he’s been counted out before — thus the David Spade crack on his snarky SNL segment Spade in America that had Murphy reeling (“Look children, it’s a falling star, make a wish,” Spade said as an image of Murphy appeared.)
That was 1995 after flops like Beverly Hills Cop III and Vampire in Brooklyn. In 1996, Murphy appeared as seven different characters in the Jerry Lewis remake and box-office smash The Nutty Professor. Hits like Dr. Dolittle and Shrek would follow, but it’s Nutty Professor that still makes Murphy’s comedy contemporaries marvel.
“I’m telling you,” Murphy’s Daddy Day Care co-star Jeff Garlin told the Post, "the greatest slight in the history of the Academy Awards is Eddie Murphy not winning anything for The Nutty Professor. ”
Read the full profile on The Washington Post
